Stepney wrote:We said that about the Southampton game. And Middlesbrough. It aint gona happen mate. Yesterday it became apparant that the problem is actuallly very simple......We don't have enough quality on the pitch. All the hard work in the World won't change that. We 'nicked' a lot of results last year but have been found out this year.

Did you honestly believe that last year? We were 2 awful end-of-season results away from a CL place across a 38-game season. I remember many people at the time, pundits and fans, pointing to how many points we'd actually dropped due to terrible ref decisions going against us (Chelsea and Leicester spring to mind).

There's always these wild fluctuations in opinion about how good our players and manager actually are depending on how well we're doing at that particular point in time, with very little regard for the bigger picture. At the other end of the spectrum, I recall someone at the start of the season saying that we had better players than Chelsea (!).

If we nicked our way to a record points haul last year with poor personnel then our manager is a genius, yet there's another thread with people discussing getting rid of him.

steveyrockstar wrote:Did you honestly believe that last year? We were 2 awful end-of-season results away from a CL place across a 38-game season. I remember many people at the time, pundits and fans, pointing to how many points we'd actually dropped due to terrible ref decisions going against us (Chelsea and Leicester spring to mind).

There's always these wild fluctuations in opinion about how good our players and manager actually are depending on how well we're doing at that particular point in time, with very little regard for the bigger picture. At the other end of the spectrum, I recall someone at the start of the season saying that we had better players than Chelsea (!).

If we nicked our way to a record points haul last year with poor personnel then our manager is a genius, yet there's another thread with people discussing getting rid of him.

Personally so much about last season has been over hyped because relative to West Ham it was a very good season but the manner that so many of our results were achieved simply suggested we were nothing more than a form team edging wins largely off the back of a player at the top of his game inspiring others around him.

This season started without him and even since his return to the side he has no longer been able to lift a side that is basically being exposed in much the same way it was often done last season because defensively we were rarely good so surely it is no surprise to see us have those problems now.

Many teams have good seasons off the back of one or two form players but the skill is to recognise that and ensure you build on that success not assume you have simply become a good team, Palace recognised that goal scoring was an issue so have tried to address that whereas we decided to ignore the defensive issues we had.

Sadly for me we have fallen into the trap of believing we were better than we were and we will regret that complacency, Palace were in a way lucky to have their form drop away during the season despite enjoying an equally promising start to the season their League position fell away dramatically so it was more obvious that they needed to spend the summer looking to improve their first team and I am pretty sure we will find out to our cost how well they have done that.

This is a game that I expect to lose 2-0 and that is about a fair reflection of where both teams are now, let's not kind ourselves we are as bad as any side in this League this season and the longer we deny that the bigger the mountain we will have to climb.

I dont buy these gloomy forecasts for us in this fixture. I know we are pants right now, but this game is two full weeks away. History suggests Selhurst Park is a happy hunting ground for us and traditionally, we fare well here and as we all know, Pards gets his points in pockets. Just as he go's on a winning streak, he then go's on a long losing streak and right now, he is on a winning streak , but we all know, that winning streak is going to end soon